Kersploosh!

Yesterday also marked the first two items that were dropped into the toilet. One was a clip-on book light that I gave you in desperation the other day because it made a clicking sound that I thought you’d love more than a light socket. The other was some cuticle cream that your daddy uses (so this will just be between you and me, k?).

And the winner is…

Aunt Lara!!

Congratulations, Aunt Lara, you correctly guessed the day the toddler would toddle on a regular basis. Yes, Thursday, November 20, 2008, was the official day of Toddling.

Now that we know you possess magical powers of prediction, expect that we will call on you from time-to-time. For example:

• Where has Asher placed the remote control?
• What caused that portion of Igloo’s fur to turn blue?
• Why is Ming afraid of pillows?
• Why is that one plant growing so much quicker than the others?
• What is Asher’s report card?
• What does PITR mean?
• Are they dating or just seeing each other?
• Is “phat” good or bad these days?

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. We only hope that you use your powers for good and not evil.

P.S. Although, from what I understand, you may have to share this responsibility with Grandma. Supposedly, she guessed November 20 as well, but failed to tell anyone.

Two Steps Forward… Crawl On Back.

Ok, it’s not mastered yet. This morning I thought for sure you were going to hit the ground running. If yesterday was any indication, you had a lot of ground to cover today. I even stretched before I went into your room. Buuuut…..

It seems you have lost interest. Today, you really didn’t show much interest beyond a coupon book we got in the mail. It should be noted that I also felt YOUR FIRST MOLAR breaking through the skin this morning, too, so your mind was probably distracted with excruciating pain.

Although, when I came home tonight, you and Daddy were playing and you did your fair share of toddling then, so maybe you just needed a reminder that it’s pretty cool to motor upright. At this point, it looks like Aunt Lara still may win the bet with her date of November 20. And, no, Aunt Lara, there’s still no money involved in this bet. Much like parenting, you simply get the satisfaction of guessing right!

It Walks…

Wow. What an amazing day it has been.

It started when Alyssa came and she hasn’t seen you since Wednesday. I had to warn her that you’d been practicing some new moves over the weekend: you’d take a couple of steps here and there – and a few times you even did it on purpose.

About a half an hour later, Alyssa was going ape shit in the family room. Apparently, you walked about 5 steps from the couch to her. Then you took about ten steps, looping in a big circle in the family room. And every time you did this, you had the biggest grin on your face and Alyssa was simply elated.

By the time she left at 4pm, you were walking back and forth between the two of us and you thought it was THE COOLEST thing. You knew every time you toddled, Alyssa and I would erupt in claps and praise. I called Daddy to let him know that big happenings were going on. But, you had yet to stand up without holding on to something; you’d walk only if you were already standing. We figured you’d have this mastered in a couple of days.

Then, I had to call Daddy about a half an hour later to let him know you had now figured that out. You sit on the floor, then try to stand up, fall down, giggle and then do it all over again. It was like someone had put a quarter in you. As soon as you got up to your feet, you just stumbled from room to room. And I just followed you, saying “Holy Shit” over and over under my breath.

To this day, I will say there’s nothing more startling than to be on the phone with Daddy and have you suddenly WALK PAST ME into the next room. It’s like someone hit the fast-forward button on my life. And Alyssa’s going to crap her pants when she gets here tomorrow. She left and you had mastered ten steps. But when she shows up tomorrow… well, I’m just going to have you answer the door.

Ooooh, Mommy might have to go to the park with you tomorrow just to watch you walk around it for the first time.

Here’s some pictures, we’ll upload video soon:

The Puzzler

The past few days you’ve been waking up really early in the morning… like the before 6am kind of early. I don’t know if it’s because of the time change or simply because you’re 16 months old. Probably the latter.

When this happens, it totally screws with your naps. Either you don’t take a long one, like on Sunday, or you take a very long one, like the 4-hour slumber you took Monday. Either way, it ends up with you crying in the middle of the night, which is so traumatic and sad for everyone involved.

When you were up at midnight on Monday, I was trying to figure out what was bothering you – if it was the light, your teeth, dreams, growth spurt, your schedule, etc., and what we could change to keep you from waking up so upset in the middle of the night. Then it hit me again: how I feel sometimes parenting is like your constantly trying to figure out a puzzle.

When you were an infant, I would think of it in steps. Like today, I’m going to try A, B, C and see if I end up with D. And if I was successful (meaning you were happy), it only made sense to do those same steps the next day. But “parenting” world isn’t like the “real” world; the next day is a whole new day and it really doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, because it’s probably not going to yield the same result today. Nope. Today you should just forget about what you did yesterday and get started on figuring out what steps you’re going to use now.

Now you’ve evolved to a Rubik’s cube. As I was drifting back to sleep, I was thinking how it seems we get something worked out and then notice it just means something else got messed up. It’s like we worked to get all the blues together on one side of the cube only to see the yellows are scattered everywhere. Like, I let you sleep for 4 hours on Monday because I thought you needed to catch up on sleep, but instead it just screwed up your nighttime sleep and you were up multiple times crying.

I’ll be honest. Back in the day when I tried to solve the Rubik’s cube, I cheated. I would try for awhile and then end up prying the corner square out and rebuilding it. It scares me to think of some kind of analogy on how that relates to my parenting skills… all I know is that it’s not looking good!

A Few Bad Apples

I wasn’t going to post these pictures, but I’ve changed my mind. See, you don’t always take a cute picture. Sometimes you smoosh your face or bare your teeth and it’s really not your best look, kid. Your Aunt Lara sent the cutest bib and socks to you to wear for Halloween and every time I tried to take your picture, you made a funny (and not-so-cute) face.  So here you are in all your glory:

Love Bites

Over the past week or so your biting hasn’t gotten any better. The one thing we have noticed is that it doesn’t seem to be used as aggression. Quite the opposite, really. You typically go for the bite when you’re having a lot of fun or want to show love… it’s like you love me so much, you want to eat me. However, as I look at the small bruises and marks on my body, I feel this is an unhealthy relationship.

Mommy used to have a cat that would do this, too. If you pet and pet him, he would purr and purr and then turn around and bite you. It wasn’t always hard, but it also wasn’t always enjoyable either. A few times Mommy bit the kitty back and it worked… but, alas, the kitty’s brain was only the size of a walnut, so I will show restraint when it comes to biting you. Mommy’s nice like that.

The Two Step

Yesterday we were up playing in your bedroom. I sat on the floor watching you pull your shirts from the drawer, toss them to the floor, pick some up to put back in, take them out, bend down, pick a few more up, toss those on the floor, reach in to pull more shirts out… you get the idea. I’ve learned to just let you get this out of your system and occasionally grab a few shirts to fold into a separate, hidden pile and refrain from putting folded shirts back in the drawer.

When you were finished yesterday, you closed the drawer, put your arms down to your side and stood there staring at me. I put out my hands and said “come sit with Momma” AND YOU WALKED TWO STEPS TO ME WITHOUT HOLDING ON TO ANYTHING! I would have made a big deal out of it, but you had no idea you’d done it and I probably would have just scared you anyway.

So, you’re closer. Daddy and I placed bets today on when it would be that you would start regularly toddling without holding on. My date is November 25 and your Daddy has his money on December 15. Your turn.

Pure Genius

Last night, you were playing with something on the floor that was in a little bag. As you were tossing it here and there, the item fell out and you were stuck holding the bag (HA!) But, that’s not the point. The point is, you then crawled with the bag into the kitchen, opened the cabinet where the trashcan is and threw the bag away. AND WE NEVER TAUGHT YOU HOW TO DO THIS. In fact, I don’t I’ve ever explained where the trash can is or what trash is. In fact, I often let you play with trash: empty kleenex boxes… empty cracker boxes…

It’s probable that Alyssa has been teaching you this, but I’m not going to ask her. I’m just going to ready your application to Mensa.

The Cutest Astronaut

Last Christmas, Grandpa O and Pam bought you an astronaut costume and it fit you perfectly this Halloween. So, we introduce to you, The Ashernaut:

We haven’t called to verify, but we’re pretty sure that NASA will still accept you if you suck your thumb in space…